> These are the questions I'm seeking answers to; I know that those of
> you who have coded their own Summon front-ends must have faced the
> same questions when implementing their record displays.

Feel free to refer to VuFind's Summon template for reference if that is helpful:

https://vufind.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vufind/trunk/web/interface/themes/default/Summon/record.tpl

Andrew wrote this originally, and I've tweaked it in a few places to address problems as they arose.  I don't claim that this offers the definitive answer to your questions...  but it's working reasonably well for us so far.

- Demian